signs of open source getting in to mainstream
 

Hi there,
I was pleasantly surprised today. Why? Well I was in this computer shop to see the latest computer stuff. I was looking at what software came with the boxes and to my surprise openoffice was on the list.
This isn't the first time I have seen this. I have seen it in advertising adds, computer shops, magazines. And not only openoffice, but stuff like gimp.
First linux apps will start to get popular. That way there will be less reasons for people not to chose linux and linux it's self will grow in popularity.

Woohoo!

That's all I've got to say about that :D

Cool

er... not to blanket your joy... my impression was that things have been like that for a long time? i'm not sure we can point to a shop and say "whoo look! open source is coming to the mainstream". i'm not trying to put your joy down... just that, it's been in this state for ages.

Well we have one small electronics shop here that sells some poor quality laptops (aka not Toshiba, Dell, HP...) with RedHat installed.
Cant post pic, as they have no home page. :/

ooo... that'll be a deal to look at!
the only company selling pre-installed redhat around here is dell...

Not to blanket your reasoning tundra (and the reasoning is valid to further your point) but in my experience, such small things are often a reflection of a much wider picture - especially if schatoor knows that shop well.

In the job centre a few weeks ago, I found myself sitting next to another programmer looking for a job. On train I overheard someone talking about studying for MSCE (!) because he had much more spare time now...

These effects are well known, and as an ex-economist, they tell you much more than government stats or the media. If I was trying to counter your argument I would start waffling about grass roots support wah wah wah, but you see his point?

Bert :)